It's no secret that some of these costumes were arguably offensive to certain groups of people, but I don't think that was anyone's intention. Personally, I enjoyed getting photographed stabbing Hitler to death, as did my friend dressed as the Korean military shooting Kim Jung Il through the heart. In my opinion, they were all hilarious satires, glorified mockeries, if you will, that shouldn't have been taken too seriously.
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| The Bermuda Triangle...ha ha |
Halloween night is the perfect excuse for anyone to throw a party. It's the perfect excuse to dress up as a sexy seductive house maid and not be called names for it. And it's the perfect night to stand out in a crowd, especially one which is occupied by hand held mirrors, whitening cream and blemish control pads. In other words, most Koreans would probably quiver from the very thought of dressing indecently which makes us Westerners want to cross the line even more. We are already used to being stared at on a daily basis. We're used to being pointed at, blatantly talked about and feeling like the odd one out. Koreans, for the most part, already think us foreigner's are from a different planet, so why not prove them...right!
Last weekend my friends and I survived another ridiculous night out in Gwangju as we celebrated three different birthdays. Jo, Chuck and Adam's birthdays all fall around the same 2 weeks in November so they came to the mutual decision to just throw one big birthday bash. The three birthday kids decided to randomly dress up in furry animal costumes (2 weeks after Halloween) proving once again that we have no shame. Also, with Movember in its third week, Chuck looked like a creepy, pedophile version of the lion in Wizard of Oz. It was seriously uncomfortable for everyone.
I find I'm always able to be more myself if I have at least one other foreign friend amongst a group of Koreans. Unfortunately for me, I'm the only native English teacher at my workplace so it's only natural that I would run into various misunderstandings or try to overcome difficult language barriers.
Going out for staff dinners about once a month typically involve a ridiculous amount of Korean food, unlimited beer and soju and small talk. Mostly though, I find myself objectively listening to Korean conversations clinging onto any which word that seems remotely familiar and then create fictional dialogues in my mind to keep me entertained. My Korean vocabulary is not at all sophisticated so I also depend a lot on nonverbal communication in order to analyze the tone of dinner. For example, near the end of the night or when my boss's cheeks are a bright shade of pink and there is talk of going to a singing room, he stands up and gives a speech to the staff (all in Korean of course). So while everyone is sitting, focused on my boss at the end of the table, I am staring at my coworkers assessing their facial expressions so I can mock them just the same. It's something I've picked up after truly feeling like the foreigner that I am. It's actually not as easy as it may sound, keeping eye contact with the speaker while quickly scanning the crowd for smiles or frowns or maybe even looks of disgust. Every breath, a quiet giggle or a short sigh from the person next to me can say so much about whatever it is in the world my boss is talking about. It's just now up to me to make it look like I understand or appear like I care. Don't they say imitation is the highest form of flatery?
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| My bosses wife handing out shots of soju |
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| A few of my co workers |
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| My boss about to down his beer |
Wrtie more soon!
Miss you all.
Signing off,
Gillian Teacha x
